Senegal prepares to open 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar

Senegal is kicking off the Youth Olympic Games on Saturday, bringing an Olympic event to Africa for the first time as the continent seeks a bigger role in international sporting competitions.

About 2,700 young athletes aged 14 to 17 will compete through Nov. 13 in the capital, Dakar, the nearby city of Diamniadio and the beach resort of Saly.

Hundreds of dancers will join a spectacle celebrating Senegalese and African culture, in line with the Fames motto “Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates.”

“This is a first opportunity for Senegal and, by extension, for Africa, to discover new sports," Thomas Dieme, a Senegalese student said as Dakar prepared to host the games. "It is only natural that we should all be happy to welcome other people, other cultures,” he added.

Among the celebrities expected at Saturday's opening ceremony is French actor Omar Sy, who has Senegalese roots and stars in the Netflix series “Lupin,” as well as Senegalese Italian TikTok star Khaby Lame, both ambassadors for the games.

The mascot, Ayo, is a young lion wearing a traditional Fulani hat. Its name means “joy” in Yoruba, a language spoken in Nigeria and neighboring West African countries.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye is scheduled to declare the games open at 6:30 p.m. local time (0830 GMT) at the Diamniadio stadium where International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry and some heads of state are expected to be present.

Bringing teenage athletes together

The Youth Olympics are a smaller competition than the Summer Olympics. Singapore hosted the first summer edition in 2010. Dakar was initially due to host in 2022, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the games by four years.

Athletes will compete in 153 medal events across 25 sports, including athletics, swimming and 3-x-3 basketball.

Several sports will make their Youth Olympic debuts. They include Baseball5, a five-on-five version of baseball played without bats and gloves, Wushu, a Chinese martial art, that can be choreography-based or combat sport, and coastal rowing beach sprint, which combines beach runs with a head-to-head rowing race.

Beach wrestling will also feature at the Youth Olympics for the first time, a nod to Senegalese wrestling, the country’s national sport also performed on sand.

The first refugee team at a Youth Olympics will field six athletes based in Kenya and Uganda in track and field, judo and taekwondo.

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